Video Pro-life group warns Massachusetts bill would allow abortion 'for any reason' later in pregnancy As the Senate prepares to vote, abortion opponents argue the legislation would effectively eliminate existing legal limits after 24 weeks, while supporters say it ensures physicians—not statute—determine medically necessary care.
Massachusetts is poised to dramatically expand access to abortions access up to 24 weeks of pregnancy in a mad dash by Democrat lawmakers to pass the measure before the legislative session ends Friday.
The Prioritizing Patients' Access to Care Act is on a fast track to clear the Massachusetts Legislature after passing the House 119-33 last week. It marks the latest effort by Democratic-led states to expand abortion protections after the Supreme Court's 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization decision returned abortion policy to the states.
Supporters say the New England state bill removes barriers to medically necessary care, while opponents contend it would make Massachusetts one of the nation's least restrictive states for abortions later in pregnancy.
MAMDANI AND HOCHUL ANNOUNCE CASH INFUSION FOR NEW YORK CITY ABORTION ACCESS HUB EXPANSION
Pro-life supporters take part in the anti-abortion 'March For Life' through central London to a rally in Parliament Square in London, United Kingdom on September 6, 2025. (Wiktor Szymanowicz/Anadolu via Getty Images)
If enacted, the bill would remove current legal requirements limiting abortions after 24 weeks to four specific circumstances — protecting the patient's life, physical health, mental health, or cases involving a lethal fetal anomaly or a grave fetal diagnosis.
Instead, the bill would allow licensed physicians to decide whether an abortion after 24 weeks is appropriate based on their own medical judgment. It would also prevent third-party medical reviewers from overruling decisions made by a patient and their doctor.
The proposal mirrors a law Maine enacted in 2023 that similarly allows late-term abortions based on a physician's judgment.
"The goal of passing this legislation is simple. Medical decisions should be made by a patient and their doctor," bill sponsor Rep. Lindsay N. Sabadosa, D-Northampton, said in a statement. "Massachusetts has one of the best health care systems in the country, and patients should be able to rely on their providers to deliver medically appropriate care without restrictions that can fail to account for the complexity of individual medical circumstances."
"By removing those barriers, we can ensure that no one has to leave Massachusetts to receive the care they need."
Supporters of the bill argue that existing statutory exceptions are too narrow to account for every serious pregnancy complication.
NEW JERSEY DEMOCRATS ADVANCE BILL CRIMINALIZING INTERFERENCE WITH ABORTION, TRANSGENDER HEALTHCARE
Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., speaks during a Senate hearing while pointing to a chart showing fetal development stages on Capitol Hill in Washington. (Courtesy U.S. Senate Photographic services)
Claire Teylouni, interim co-executive director of Reproductive Equity Now, told the New York Times about a 2021 case in which a woman had to leave Massachusetts for an abortion after her fetus suffered a stroke at 33 weeks because providers did not believe the case fit within the state's existing legal exceptions.
"She was shocked that she had to leave Massachusetts to get this care," Teylouni told The New York Times. "Providers say they want to be able to use their professional expertise to make decisions — that's how we treat almost every other area of health care."
Opponents say the current law already includes broad exceptions and argue the bill would remove existing limits on abortions after 24 weeks.
"The current law that exists in Massachusetts allows abortion up until 24 weeks, and it already has exceptions," Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America Communications Direct Kelsey Pritchard told Fox News Digital. "It has health and life exceptions for the mother, but it even has exceptions that allow for so-called fetal anomaly abortion, so if the baby has a life-limiting diagnosis, if the baby has a disability diagnosis, already in Massachusetts you can abort those babies seemingly at any point.
"And so what this new bill would do is allow abortion throughout the second and third trimesters if you have an abortionist who has a medical degree who can sign off on that for you, so essentially they're opening the door to elective abortion at any point in pregnancy," Pritchard said.
FIRST ON FOX: TRUMP DOJ REACHES SETTLEMENT WITH PRO-LIFE PROTESTER TARGETED BY BIDEN ADMIN
Pritchard also criticized the legislative process, saying Democratic leaders moved quickly to pass the measure before lawmakers adjourn.
"There's really no justification for them to make their law this extreme," she said. "It's something that they've been doing in secret. They kind of tried to fly under the radar when they passed this bill in the House. And then they bypassed the full Senate committee process to fast-track this and get this done before their legislative session ends on July 31."
Pro-life supporters celebrate outside the US Supreme Court in Washington, DC, on June 24, 2022. The US Supreme Court on Friday ended the right to abortion in a seismic ruling that shreds half a century of constitutional protections on one of the most divisive and bitterly fought issues in American political life. The conservative-dominated court overturned the landmark 1973 "Roe v Wade" decision that enshrined a woman's right to an abortion and said individual states can permit or restrict the procedure themselves. (OLIVIER DOULIERY/AFP via Getty Images)
Republicans in the legislature also questioned both the substance of the bill and how quickly it advanced.
Republican state Rep. Kelly Pease told WWLP that he was caught off guard by the proposal.
"I think most of our caucus was. It's like, where did this come from?" Pease said. "I don't see how I'm going to be in favor of a bill that allows babies over six months to be terminated when they're probably viable outside the womb, unless there's extenuating circumstances, and this kind of just takes away some of the safeguards that were in place before."
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
Massachusetts Democratic Gov. Maura Healey has made expanding abortion access one of the defining priorities of her administration.
Since taking office in 2023, she has called Massachusetts a "beacon of reproductive freedom" for abortion access in the post-Dobbs era, having directed state agencies to shield abortion providers and patients from out-of-state legal action and ordered the state to stockpile mifepristone after a federal court challenged the FDA's approval of the abortion pill. She has not publicly weighed in on this bill.
Fox News Digital reached out to Healey for comment.
Elaine Mallon is a writer for Fox News Digital and Fox Business covering national politics.
